[capnq]

CEO Davdi wished he had worn more comfortable clothing. His somber five-layer outfit, which he normally only wore to wakes, had seemed appropriate for the seriousness of his speech, but the dark purple fabric was really soaking up the heat from the holovid stage lights. The floor director counted down from three, then signalled to Dadvi that he was on the air.

"Good evening, fellow stockholders. I have a message for you tonight of grave importance.

In this fiscal year, the Conglomerate has accomplished a great deal. A new refuelling station on Kexma enabled us to colonize the two hydrogen worlds in Praxis Verdanis, and to extend the exploratory voyage of the _Speculation_, which found three more colonizable worlds in the Polaris system. Her sister ship, the _Investment_, found a total of six more colonizable worlds, four of which have breathable atmospheres. The Conglomerate now boasts eighteen branch colonies in seven systems. Remarkable breakthoughs in computer science brought advanced robotic factories to increase productivity, and automated spacecraft such as the _Personnel_ passenger transport, which can operate without intervention by an Eifral crew. However, these breakthoughs came at an unexpected price.

Three years ago, the discovery of the abandoned Skycity of the Masters on Jalwu dominated the newsfeeds, but as some commentators have noted, few results of the continuing study of the ancient computer system found there have been published. The reason for this was that the sapient computer known as 'Node-25' held a terrible secret in its databanks.

Many Eifralo believe that the Masters will one day return, to live among us again. We have long speculated that there could be other intelligent races scattered among the stars. Node-25 revealed to us that the Masters were not alone in the universe in their day. There was at least one other starfaring race, and that unnamed race was a bitter enemy to the Masters. Node-25 contained records of war in space, a horrific conflict of unimaginable proportions.

Approximately a year and a half ago, another artifact from the Master's day was discovered adrift in Nuqbo's planetary rings. Comparison to Node-25's database indicate that the heavily damaged object was part of a powerful weapon, of a type used by both sides in the Masters' war. We do not know to whom this particular weapon belonged, but it was clearly once part of a spacecraft, destroyed in one of the devastating battles depicted in Node-25's records.

We cannot assume that other intelligent lifeforms on distant worlds will value cooperation above conflict. The Conglomerate must be prepared to defend Eifra and our branch colonies against potential attackers. The next fiscal year's budget proposal, which I will submit to the Board of Directors tomorrow, includes research and development expenditures on technologies which our engineers believe could help protect us. Some will oppose these projects as an unnecessary, profitless expense, but I say that they are an essential premium to be paid for an insurance policy which we hope to never have to file a claim against.

However, we cannot allow the fear of undiscovered dangers to hold back our exploration program. If there are hostile aliens out there, we must find them before they find us. We cannot wait to discern the intentions of strangers until they arrive to meet us in our own skies. We must hope that those we may someday meet will seek profitable commerce rather than hostile acquisition.

I thank you for your valuable time this evening. Good night, and good profit."